2014

 STANLEY CRESCENT GARDEN COMMITTEE

MINUTES – GARDEN ANNUAL GENERAL MEETING

Wednesday 21 May 2014

The meeting held on Wednesday15th May at 8.30 p.m. at St Peter’s Church, Kensington Park Road, London, W11 was attended by 36 residents.

 

  1. Apologies for absence

Michel Robert, Sheila Robertson, Laura Bailey, Alex Julyan, Kelsey Cheshire

  1. Minutes of the last meeting

Minutes of the last meeting were agreed – proposed by Geordie Greig and seconded by Carla Petschek

  1. Chairman’s Report

The Chairman, Sandra Kamen, welcomed everyone to the meeting. The Chairman went on to thank the members of the Committee for their work over the last year and congratulated the gardeners, Gordon and Steve, for making the garden look so spectacular.

She informed the meeting that James Lipton, who had served as Treasurer for 18 years, had resigned from the post and the Committee.  She expressed the Committee’s gratitude for his hard work and wished him well in his new home in Oxford Gardens. Jonathan Searle has kindly taken on the onerous responsibility of balancing the books.

Linda Clifford, Ros Bardi, and Jacqui Lane Jenkins have offered themselves up for re-election. Isabella Kullmann, who has held the post of secretary for the last two years, is hoping to step down later in the year.

Website — The Chairman congratulated Ros Bardi on keeping the website up to date.  As well as posting current information for all garden users, the website also has photographs of the garden’s archive which is now kept at RBKC central reference archive. These three minute books date back to the late 19th century and reveal that in the past lawn tennis was enjoyed as well as clock golf! The Chairman encouraged residents to pass on any photographs of the garden.

Open Garden Squares Weekend – The Chairman reported that 785 people visited the garden during the Open Garden Squares Weekend.  The garden will be open to visitors once again this year on Sunday 15th June. SK encouraged children to participate in the event by setting up tea & cake stalls.

Bottom Lawn — Gordon is planting out the bald patch between the two trees on the bottom lawn.  The Chairman added that Nayla Mishalany kindly donated a garden bench in memory of her brother.

Wendy House – IK mentioned that the Wendy House is still being used for drinking, drug taking, and smoking.  SK asked parents to speak to their teenage children and ask them to be more considerate to the younger children and the Committee members who regularly clean up the mess.

Dogs – The Chairman asked all dog owners to abide by the garden rules and pick up their dog’s mess. There are now 27 registered dogs on the garden and dog pooh remains a problem.

  1. Treasurer’s Report

Jonathan Searle opened by saying that he found the accounts, as he had expected, in good order when he took over as Treasurer in September 2013. We have underspent by £2,300 on the projected figures for the year. This, however, is as a one-off fluke due to the fact that we didn’t have any major expenditure such as tree surgery.

The major expense remains the wage bill which has increased by £5,000 this year from £24,000 to nearly £30,000. In other words, in a normal year we would have overspent by £4,000. To meet this shortfall, and to avoid eating into our reserves which the Committee would like to keep at 80% of the annual budget, the Treasurer proposed an increase of £4,000 on the garden levy. This increase was approved by the Council in January and brings the annual levy for 2014 to £42,000 which the Treasurer hopes to be able to keep at this rate for the next three to four years. In real terms this will see an increase in the annual garden rate of approximately £20 for a band C property and £50 for a band H property. The Treasurer apologised for the increase and trusted that all present would understand the rationale behind it.

  1. Elections to the Committee

Jacqui Lane Jenkins, Linda Clifford, and Ros Bardi put themselves forward for election and were duly elected.

Joanna Glynn was co-opted on to the Committee. The Committee now has its full complement of 12 members. SK welcomed Joanna Glynn on to the Committee.

  1. Summer Party

 

The Summer party will be held on Sunday 29th June. Jacqui Lane Jenkins, who is on the organising committee, gave a brief overview of the event. The children’s party will take place between 3-5pm and, as in the past, there will be a bouncy castle, face-painting, a magician, an entertainer, cookie-decorating, pony rides, and the art competition. Races and the traditional tug of war will be held on the bottom lawn between 5pm-6pm.
Drinks and canapés will be served on the middle lawn from 6pm onwards. The Party Committee is mindful of the expense and this year’s party will be simpler. The children’s party is financed by donations and sponsorship. Tickets will be sold for the evening event to cover the caterings costs. Tickets will be priced at £10

  1. Fireworks Party

The Fireworks party will be held on Sunday 2 November. Geordie Greig gave a brief presentation. Tickets this year will be priced at £6 for children and £12 for adults. Ralph Abraham asked if there were any restrictions on the number of non-residents invited to the party. Could a limit be set to the number of outside guests? He believed that the character of the party had changed in the last few years and that it was no longer a party for the garden community. Geordie explained that to be able to cover the costs of the party, the organising committee had to rely on outside tickets sales. The fireworks alone cost £3,000 to which you then have to add sausages, potatoes, wine, etc…

Ros Bardi pointed out that people do not commit or buy tickets early which makes it very difficult to budget and this is why the organisers have now come to rely on outside ticket sales to guarantee that the party can go ahead as planned.

  1. Any Other Business 

As there were no further questions from the floor and after some informal general discussion the meeting was brought to a close. SK thanked all the committee members who had helped to set up and organise the meeting.